Seeking Virtue

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this lesson is to help students understand what Virtue is and Practical applications to acquire virtue. This lesson discusses the virtues of Obedience, Patience, Meekness, Humility, and Love.

INTRODUCTION - 5 Minutes

When we die we take nothing with us besides virtue

Spiritual life is about working on the health of your spirit (The Image and Likeness of God you were created in) by the collaboration with the Holy Spirit, with the goal of Unity with God.

When we are striving for certain virtues, the goal is to live according the the Image and Likeness we were created in. We acquire Virtue by practicing asceticism, but if we just perform ascetic work void of the Love of God and acquiring virtue then our asceticism is useless

Ascetical works such as prayer, fasting etc... are a means not an end in itself. The act of doing it does not necessarily make me perfect, if we are looking to just check off a box. They are ways to perfect ourselves and give room to the Holy Spirit to work within us. That we may express our love to God and not be hindered or bound to sin that takes us away from God. These practices help us remove bad habits and things that remove us from God. Our goal is unity with God, which is accomplished, one can say by willing and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us and not hindering Him by false goals or sin.

"And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:24-25

St. Augustine says "God will not justify us without our cooperation." This means our spiritual life depends on synergy between God's Grace and man's free will. Asceticism is how we join this synergy and by our free will we struggle against sinful passions, and struggle to acquire virtue through spiritual exercises and activities that attract the Grace of God.

We do not earn God's Grace, but rather an avenue to accepting His everflowing Grace is to accept it through asceticism.

Our works are an expression of our faith and Love for Him. We accept His Grace by doing His will, reciprocating His love, striving to walk in the Spirit and be His Likeness and Image, investing in our relationship with Him.

HOLY SCRIPTURE

"Every tree which does not bear good fruit are cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt 3:10)
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the Vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing"(John 15:4-5)
"When you have done all these things which you are commanded, say "we are unprofitable servants, We have only done what was our duty" (Luke 17:10)
"By your endurance you will gain your souls." (Luke 21:19)
"As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither cbarren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:3-8)

CONTENT (KEY POINTS)

The first realization must be that "without Me, you can do nothing." No one can produce fruit/virtue by their own effort, but it is God who makes us fruitful.

We also have to understand, a life of virtue is not something special we do for reward, but rather "it is our duty." We were created in this design, it is only normal to live according to our design.

Now virtues do not just happen when we pray for them, but we have to train, and we will slowly acquire each virtue by our choice of free will to practice them by the strength of the Holy Spirit who is constantly working in us to mold us to this Perfect Image.

The more we are with someone, the more we learn from them and become like them. The more we are with Christ, in our relationship with Him, the more He imprints Himself on us. The more we become like Him, when we invest in Him and reciprocate His love and invest in our relationship with Him.

The same goes for the saints. The more we learn about them, and have a relationship with them, the more we take from them and emulate them

Just like with any craft, we need a trainer or coach, and so also in our spiritual life, when we are trying to acquire virtue we need a father of confession or spiritual guide to train us and give us specific exercises to acquire these virtues.

The Great Abba Antony once said " Whoever hammers a lump of Iron, first decides what he is going to make of it, a scythe, a sword, or an ax. We also must make up in our minds what kind of virtue we want to forge, or we labor in vain"

What Abba Antony is saying is when we perform our ascetic practices, we do not just do them at random, but in our mind we know we are training for a specific virtue, but if we are just participating in asceticism at random then we labor in vain.

St. Paul teaches us "All things work together for good to those who love God". This is applicable to understand that everything that happens to us is for our own good, if we Love God. So a wise person, when placed in a difficult situation that he does not understand will ask :What virtue is God asking me to practice now"

So when we pray for virtue, let us realize we won't just wake up with the virtue instilled in us, but rather like a Good Father, God will send us occasions in our day to practice the virtue we pray to acquire.

There are many virtues, and God is the perfection and source of all these virtues. God is the one who completes and perfects these virtues in me.

In saying this, there are many specific virtues that we can name and practice, but for the sake of this discussion we will cover only a few very briefly such as : Obedience, Patience, Meekness, and Humility.

Obedience

Obedience is subjecting your will to the will of another. To be truly obedient, you don't have to agree with the request given to you (unless it is to be disobedient to the teachings of Christ).

"Obedience is the grave of your own will and the resurrection of humility"- John Climacus

Above all, we must be obedient to the teachings of Christ and the Church. It would be good for everyone to make it a sense of urgency to have a father of confession, and this is a good place to practice obedience.

So really Obedience is the surrender of our will to God's will. It is by obedience that we offer our free will and reason as a pleasing sacrifice.

The greater you break your will for others, the greater the reward, and the more you don't want to do something, yet do it, again the greater the reward.

St. John the Short was told by his abba to take a dead bark and put it in the ground very far from his cell, and water it every day. There was no reason for him to do this, and it seemed illogical, and the walk was very far. But he was obedient and years after being obedient and never seeing any progress, the bark began to grow into a tree and bear fruit.
Abba Macarius was once giving away all his belongings to the poor, and his mother told him that he is going to run out of things, so he said to her "I will do whatever you tell me," so that he does not grieve her heart (even though what he was doing was good).

By obedience, you crush your pride, your desire to contradict, your self wisdom and stubbornness

"A fasting monk under the authority of a spiritual father without having obedience and humility will not acquire any virtue nor does he know what a monk even is" -The Strong St.Abba Moses

In allowing our life be ruled by God through our obedience, He will govern our life towards perfect joy

Patience * *

If you do not have patience, you will not be able to persevere in your training to acquire any virtue.

When a farmer plants a seed, the fruit does not sprout the next day, but the farmer must wait, and this waiting requires patience, and only by patience will there be fruit.

Our Lord teaches us that "By your patience possess your souls" (Luke 21:19). The more we are able to be patient during tribulations or inconveniences the more we save our souls.

It is patience that will keep us motivated to continue striving for virtue, because if we just give up when things get tough or take too long, then we will never be able to save our souls.

Like every virtue God will guide us if we are being prayerful, to use the many occasions in our day to practice patience. God in His love towards us will give us plenty of chances to practice patience. So, do not be surprised that when you pray for patience you start to find yourself in many situations that make you lose your patience, this is where God is telling you "Practice"

The experience of waiting is often unpleasant, but we must not lose our sense of waiting as a virtue of patience.

When fighting a particular sin, patience is also needed, we can not get discouraged when we keep falling into the same sin, but rather by practicing patience and continuing to struggle we will acquire both patience and overcoming this sin.

Abba Ammon once said "I have spent 14 years at Scete beseeching Gof night and day that He would grant me to overcome wrath"
When a brother prayed that God may remove his warfare, Abba John the Short said "Go and beseech God for the battle to come upon you, for it is by fighting battles that the soul makes progress." Then when the battle came, he no longer prayed for it to be taken away; but instead he said "Lord, give me patience in the battles."

Meekness

Meekness is a virtue that closely resembles the heart of God, for He told us "Learn from me, for I am Meek..." (Mt 11:28)

When speaking about Christ the prophet Isaiah says "He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street, A bruised reed He will not break and a smoking wick he will not quench" (Isa 442: 2-3)

Meekness is a quality that incorporates gentleness, softness, peacefulness, and is void of anger or violence. A meek person will not let their emotions move them. As described about Christ from the prophet Isaiah.

"Meekness is an immovable state of the soul which remains unaffected whether in evil report or in good report, in dishonor or in praise"- St. John Climacus

Meekness is like a cliff of the sea, the waves keep crashing on the cliff, but the cliff is never broken

Ex: the disciple sent by Abba Macarius to first go insult the dead in their graves then to later praise them. Abba Macarius then asked him what their response was, and he explained how, whether insulted or praised, they stayed the same. The advice of Abba Macrius was "Go be like the dead" (The dead are Meek)

So to be meek means to not get angry for selfish reasons and act upon your anger, doing things that are violent, loud, harsh and not gentle.

Meekness requires steps. First we need to not repay evil for evil (impassibility of the senses of the body). Once we have reached this step, what is next is to accept an insult without losing our internal peace (Impassibility of the senses of the soul). Just because we do not pay evil for evil does not mean we have perfect meekness if we inside we are fuming with anger.

Ex: Abba Moses the Strong was insulted and abused, and when asked if he was upset he said "Although I was upset, I didn't respond or say anything" (This is step one)
Ex: St. John the Short was sitting there and a man passed by and insulted him, but he wasn't angry and his face didnt even change. So the brothers asked him if he was even secretly troubled in his heart and he answered "I am not troubled inwardly, for inwardly I am just as peaceful as you see that I am outwardly" (this is perfect impassibility of the soul)

An even more perfect third step is when we are insulted and we feel bad that we caused our neighbor to sin by insulting us, then we pray for them

"It is a mark of extreme meekness when in the presence of your offender to be peaceful and loving in your disposition towards him in your heart" - St. John Climacus

Humility

Humility is self-knowledge, it is to know yourself as you truly are.

"The essence of humility is truth and self-knowledge, to know what is rightly mine and and what is God's. What properly belongs to me is nothingness and non-existence. I only exist because God called me into existence, my being is dependent on Him. I can do nothing to emerge from nothingness and I could do nothing to prevent my return to nothingness apart from God." (Fr. Kyrillos Ibrahim "All That I Have is Yours")

If we truly know ourselves as we really are, we will discover that we are filled with sin.

When we truly realize we are filled with sin, and we realize that without God's grace we can do nothing, then we will never think too highly of ourselves, and therefore, humility protects us from pride.

Humility is not about self-hate, it's about knowing the Truth. The more we live in the presence of God, the more we will be humble, because the closer we get to Truth and Light, the more of our falsehood and darkness get revealed.

And the less we think of ourselves means that now we acknowledge the Everythingness of God, because we realize we are nothing, but have become something because of God. This is why Abba Antony the Great said "He who knows Himself, Knows God." Because if you know yourself as nothing, then you will know the everythingness of God.

Abba Antony also said "Learn to Love Humility, for it will cover all sins." The reason for this is, when a person has committed so much sin, if they are humble, which means, they know themselves as sinners, then they will repent. But if you dont know yourself as a sinner you will never repent. So if you are truly humble then all your sins are covered because you are repenting.

LIFE APPLICATION

Obedience:

Try to be very attentive to any request given to you by your parents throughout the week. Before the day begins, prepare yourself to remember you have a goal of acquiring this virtue. If your dad makes a request, leave what you are doing and do what is asked of you. If your mom asks you to do the dishes, or help around the house, leave whatever you are occupied with and help. Just say "Yes."
Do not ask if the request is reasonable or not, just do it for the sake of acquiring the virtue of obedience and because you Love Christ.
Also lets be obedient to the Church and obey her when she tells us to fast, even when we don't want to (let this be guided by your father of confession).

Patience:

Any time you have to WAIT for anything, try not to be in a rush, but rather recall what we are saying here and tell yourself "here is a good opportunity to practice patience"
Do this when waiting your turn for anything
Do this while you are doing the dishes and realize you are getting tired because of how many there are
Do this when you are helping your dad, mom or siblings with something and feel the need to return to your game or favorite t.v show.
Whatever sin you are struggling with, don't give up, but realize that by struggling with it and putting in an effort to stop, you are acquiring patience, and eventually you will see the fruit.

Meekness:

Realize that peace is a real gift from God, and the next time you feel like losing your peace imagine you taking the precious gift God gave you and throwing it in the trash.
At the start of your day, review in your mind all the places there is a chance that you get angry. Think of the people you often get angry with. This is usually our parents and siblings. But before those encounters come, we can practice thinking about the scenarios and how we can respond in a meek way, before the situation comes. (A practice by Theophan the Recluse in "Unseen Warfare")
Then whoever upset you or did wrong to you, write their name on a piece of paper and pray for them.

Humility:

At the end of each day, try to sit with yourself and recall your sins, and write them all down. This will help you "know yourself". When you realize the multidie of your sins you will be urgent in repentance and also this will be a protection from pride. (Every time you have prideful thoughts it may be beneficial to read this paper...it is also a good practice to use this paper for when you sit for spiritual guidance)

SERVANT RESOURCES

Obedience:

Way of the Ascetics (ch 12)
Ladder of Divine Ascent (step 4)
"Sayings of the Desert fathers" -Book of the Elders (Ch 14)
Paradise of the Holy Fathers volume 2 (ch 7)

Patience:

"Sayings of the Desert fathers" -Book of the Elders (Ch 7)
Paradise of the Holy Fathers volume 2 (ch 6)

Meekness:

Ladder of Divine Ascent (step 8)

Humility:

Ladder of Divine Ascent (step 24)
"Sayings of the Desert fathers" -Book of the Elders (Ch 15)
Paradise of the Holy Fathers volume 2 (ch 10)